1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a temperature control apparatus for controlling the temperature of another apparatus and, more particularly, to a temperature control apparatus for cooling a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus such as an etching apparatus by exchanging the heat between a heat exchanger for passing a liquid (or a temperature controlling fluid) fed from the outside and a heat exchanger for passing a circulating liquid (or a temperature controlled fluid) and by using this circulating liquid.
2. Related Art
The temperature control apparatus of the prior art, as used for cooling a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus such as an etching apparatus, is provided with a heat exchanger unit 30, as shown in FIG. 3. This heat exchanger unit 30 includes: a cooling water heat exchanger (or a temperature controlling heat exchanger) having a cooling water passage 31 formed for passing the cooling water fed from the outside; and a circulating liquid heat exchanger (or a temperature controlled heat exchanger) having a (not-shown) circulating liquid passage formed for passing a circulating liquid to be circulated between itself and the etching apparatus, so that the heat is exchanged between the cooling water heat exchanger and the circulating liquid heat exchanger. The cooling water passage 31 is connected through a joint 33 to a pipe 36 connected to the outside. For this connection, there are used two nuts 34 and 35 which are attached to the joint 33.
In this temperature control apparatus of the prior art, however, a space is needed for turning the nuts 34 and 35 so that there is a problem that the space efficiency is poor. Where the heat exchange unit 30 is arranged in a narrow space, on the other hand, the nuts 34 and 35 are hard to be turned thereby raise another problem that the maintainability is poor. Moreover, the heat exchanger is fixed at its two ends to raise another problem that the thermal distortion in the heat exchanger cannot be absorbed.
On the other hand, it is conceivable to connect a connecting pipe to a cooling water passage and to connect the connecting pipe to a passage block by fitting it and further to the pipe 36 through a passage block. With this construction, however, the passage block and the heat exchange unit have to be precisely machined and that leads to rise in cost.
Alternatively, it is conceivable to attach the connecting pipe to the passage block removably by means of bolts. With this construction, however, it is impossible to absorb the distortion of the heat exchanger, as caused by the thermal expansion or shrinkage.